Stanford announces Rose Bowl allocation sellout

Stanford fans will be going in droves to Pasadena. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

By Vlae Kershner

Stanford announced today that it sold out its allocation of more than 31,000 Rose Bowl tickets on Monday, the first full day of telephone sales. The athletic department says orders are still being taken as the Rose Bowl and Pac-12 make more tickets available.
The rapid sale comes as a surprise after Stanford drew an announced crowd of just 31,622 to the Pac-12 championship game against UCLA on Friday night–about 25,000 of whom appeared to be in their seats. The poor crowd drew mocking references, such as these on a Notre Dame blog.

People in California just don’t handle rain well.

How does such a tough team have such wimpy fans?

To be fair, the game was held at an inconvenient time on a workday, heavy rain had had been forecast for several days, and the Pac-12, in charge of tickets, priced them too high, in some cases more than double what Stanford charges for a regular-season game. Still, even a large and loud Rose Bowl crowd won’t erase Stanford’s reputation as a place where fan support is spotty.
The school has a relatively small alumni base, and the casual fans who could pack an 87,000-seat Stanford Stadium decades ago (the new stadium seats 50,000) have largely gone over to the 49ers. I’ve had the thought that Stanford needs to market the idea that non-alumni are wanted and needed as fans, as sometimes the place feels like a big class reunion.